Again, I need someone's help in identifying a flower that grows along the Colville River, Arctic North Slope, Alaska, (north side of the Brooks Range). The picture was taken June 28th, 2007.
Looks like something on the order of a hawkweed, another aster family plant. There are many thousands of species in this family, so mystery plants belonging to it being found i the field is common.
I agree with Ron that this is a plant from the sunflower family (Asteraceae). I do not believe, however, that this is a hawkweed. It is rather something from the genus Petasites (coltsfoot, butterbur).
Agoseris lackschewitzii can be excluded because there are four visible flower heads on the picture. A. lackschewitzii should have solitary flower heads. A somewhat bigger and sharper image of the center of the flower heads could help because both Agoseris and Hieracium have got ray florets but no tubular florets. Petasites has got tubular (= disk) florets in the center of the flower head. An image of the basal leaves would be even better. To illustrate my opinion that this is probably Petasites just look at this clickable image: http://www.nhm.uio.no/botanisk/nbf/plantefoto/Petasites_frigidus.htm or at this image of a plant that is not likely to be found in Alaska: http://www.rosisgarden.be/yef_petasites_fragrans.htm.
Robert Flogaus-Faust and Ron B: Thanks ever so much for your assistance. I believe I have found my pink flower in Flora of Alaska by J. P. Anderson, (1961). He lists three Petasites that occur in Alaska. P. sagitatus (Arrow-leaf Sweet Coltsfoot in Central Alaska), P frigidus (Arctic Sweet Coltsfoot throughout Alaska), and P. hyperboreus (no common name listed and found in Alaska and Yukon). To complicate things just a little bit J. P. Anderson states of P. frigidus: "Seems to hybridize with P. hyperboreus and P. sagittatus." So, I think I am just going to label this one as a Petasites, (Coltsfoot).
